Stone-packed pit at Hrísbrú (possible barrel support)
A round, stone-filled pit at Hrísbrú was interpreted as a barrel position; its exact vessel, contents and use remain uncertain.
Built structures · Place · pantry-floor-cask
Sunken pantry cask (Hofstaðir)
A large cask set into the pantry floor at Hofstaðir was used to store food in whey.
A pantry cask set into the floor
At Hofstaðir in Mývatnssveit, northeast Iceland, the archaeological project describes a pantry annex to a large hall with a cask embedded in the floor. It interprets the cask as a place for storing food in whey. This is evidence for one named farm complex, not a typical floor plan for every Viking-age household.
The project dates the hall's construction to after 940 and says it was abandoned around 1030. These dates place the installation in a specific tenth-century context, but they do not give an exact date for the cask itself or show that it was used throughout the whole period. The pantry belongs to the hall's associated spaces rather than the central hearth room.
Sources for this section
What the evidence does and does not identify
The Hofstaðir account names a large cask and its food-storage role, but it does not supply dimensions, a construction section, material identification, a lid or sealing method, exact contents, or storage conditions. The account says that, when the hall was abandoned, the whey cask was filled with slag from iron smelting. That later fill is evidence of the site's closure history, not a preserved food recipe.
A separate study of Icelandic farm storage discusses several room and food-processing functions at Hofstaðir. It is useful context for reading the hall complex, but it cannot fill in details that the excavated cask description leaves unknown.
Comparative images, not the excavated cask
The gallery includes a photograph of a modern Stöng reconstruction in Iceland and a separate contemporary oak-barrel photograph. Neither image shows Hofstaðir or its cask. They provide openly licensed visual comparisons only; the sources do not establish that the archaeological cask was oak or built like either reference.
The generated cutaway is an interpretive illustration of the documented floor installation. It is intentionally schematic and does not claim to reconstruct the actual room, vessel material, profile, dimensions, or contents. The two reference photographs and this reference-guided illustration are shared under CC BY-SA 2.0; credits and license links are recorded with the images.
Sources for this section
History
The Hofstaðir project places the pantry cask within the tenth-century hall complex and describes its use for food storage in whey. The hall was built after 940 and abandoned around 1030; the cask's exact installation and use dates are not specified.
Site
SettingA pantry annex in the Hofstaðir hall complex in Mývatnssveit, northeast Iceland. The project identifies a cask embedded in the pantry floor but gives no complete room plan.
GroundThe source records a cask set into the pantry floor, without a construction section or exact floor material.
NotesThe generated cutaway is interpretive and schematic, not a reconstruction of the excavated Hofstaðir room.
A build is made where it stands: moving it means building it again.
How it is built
Risks and precautions
This is an archaeological description, not a modern construction, food-storage, or food-safety plan.
Materials
- Large pantry cask (construction material unspecified)
- The Hofstaðir project describes a pantry annex with a large cask embedded in its floor. The hall complex belongs to the tenth century; the project says the hall was built after 940.
- The cask was interpreted as a store for food in whey. When the hall was abandoned around 1030, the project account says the whey cask was filled with iron-smelting slag.
- The sources do not specify the cask's material, dimensions, exact profile, lid, sealing, storage temperature, or which food was held. This describes one archaeological installation; it is not a construction plan or a universal Icelandic storage method.
Places
Mývatnssveit (Hofstaðir)
Historical attestation · Region evidenceThe source identifies Hofstaðir in the Lake Mývatn district; regional precision is used without coordinates.
Related
Same method
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Sources
The Institute of Archaeology, Iceland / Hofstaðir projectSite history · Form · Function · Geography
Cultural HeritageThe project locates Hofstaðir in Mývatnssveit, north Iceland; its hall was built after 940 and abandoned around 1030.
A pantry annex had a large cask embedded in its floor for food stored in whey; during abandonment the whey cask was filled with iron-smelting slag.
Cited in: A pantry cask set into the floor; What the evidence does and does not identify; Comparative images, not the excavated cask
Ruralia VIII / Universität WienHistorical context · Storage
Food Preparation and Storage in Iceland from the Viking Age to the Early Modern PeriodMehler surveys Icelandic farm storage and summarizes Hofstaðir end-room and adjacent spaces as indicating food storage and processing.
Cited in: What the evidence does and does not identify
Wikimedia CommonsVisual reference · Comparative reconstruction · Rights
Stöng, interior.jpg2006 photograph of a modern Stöng reconstruction at a different Icelandic site; CC BY-SA 2.0, not Hofstaðir evidence.
Cited in: Comparative images, not the excavated cask
Wikimedia CommonsVisual reference · Generic cask form · Rights
Two Oak Barrels.jpg2008 photograph of modern oak barrels; CC BY-SA 2.0, not evidence for the Hofstaðir cask's material or construction.
Cited in: Comparative images, not the excavated cask